Gordon Matta-Clark.
Born in New York in 1943, Gordon Matta-Clark is widely considered one of the most influential artists working in the 1970s. He was a key contributor to the activity and growth of the New York art world in SoHo from the late 1960s until his untimely death in 1978. His practice introduced new and radical modes of physically exploring and subverting urban architecture, and some of his most well-known projects involved laboriously cutting holes into floors of abandoned buildings or, as with Splitting (1974), slicing a suburban villa in two.
One of my favourite and most interesting of Matta-Clark's works is Bingo created in 1974 which consists of building fragments, plaster, wood and glass. To create Bingo, Gordon Matta-Clark cut pieces from the facade of a house in Niagara Falls, New York, that was slated for demolition. It took a team of assistants 10 days to “unbuild” the house. Working 12 hours per day with a small team, he cut the north facade into nine equivalent rectangles (each nine feet wide and five feet tall), and then removed each one until only the central rectangle remained. Matta-Clark kept the three sections of the building pictured here, and deposited the remaining five in a nearby sculpture park, where he hoped they would be “gradually reclaimed by the Niagara River Gorge.
Born in New York in 1943, Gordon Matta-Clark is widely considered one of the most influential artists working in the 1970s. He was a key contributor to the activity and growth of the New York art world in SoHo from the late 1960s until his untimely death in 1978. His practice introduced new and radical modes of physically exploring and subverting urban architecture, and some of his most well-known projects involved laboriously cutting holes into floors of abandoned buildings or, as with Splitting (1974), slicing a suburban villa in two.
One of my favourite and most interesting of Matta-Clark's works is Bingo created in 1974 which consists of building fragments, plaster, wood and glass. To create Bingo, Gordon Matta-Clark cut pieces from the facade of a house in Niagara Falls, New York, that was slated for demolition. It took a team of assistants 10 days to “unbuild” the house. Working 12 hours per day with a small team, he cut the north facade into nine equivalent rectangles (each nine feet wide and five feet tall), and then removed each one until only the central rectangle remained. Matta-Clark kept the three sections of the building pictured here, and deposited the remaining five in a nearby sculpture park, where he hoped they would be “gradually reclaimed by the Niagara River Gorge.
A House of (Bingo) Cards
The artist called this work Bingo because the facade, when cut into nine pieces, resembled the grid of a Bingo game card. In his complete vision for the project, Matta-Clark hoped to cut out the central panel of the opposite facade and leave the rest intact, to create a negative, or opposite, of this facade, but there was not enough time. He explained in his film The Making of “Bingo” that “an hour later, the bulldozer arrived.”1
The artist called this work Bingo because the facade, when cut into nine pieces, resembled the grid of a Bingo game card. In his complete vision for the project, Matta-Clark hoped to cut out the central panel of the opposite facade and leave the rest intact, to create a negative, or opposite, of this facade, but there was not enough time. He explained in his film The Making of “Bingo” that “an hour later, the bulldozer arrived.”1
Deconstructing Construction
Matta-Clark said, “By un-doing a building there are many aspects of the social condition against which I am gesturing: to open a state of enclosure which had been preconditioned not only by physical necessity but by the industry that profligates suburban and urban boxes as a context for insuring a passive, isolated consumer—a virtually captive audience…Under contract with the city I was to complete the work in ten days, during which time a major part of the exterior was to be sectioned into 9 equal parts, measuring 5’ x 9’. Eight of the façade segments were cut free, lowered intact, and crated for transport.”
Matta-Clark said, “By un-doing a building there are many aspects of the social condition against which I am gesturing: to open a state of enclosure which had been preconditioned not only by physical necessity but by the industry that profligates suburban and urban boxes as a context for insuring a passive, isolated consumer—a virtually captive audience…Under contract with the city I was to complete the work in ten days, during which time a major part of the exterior was to be sectioned into 9 equal parts, measuring 5’ x 9’. Eight of the façade segments were cut free, lowered intact, and crated for transport.”
(referenced from www.moma.org/gordon_matta-clark)
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